As data security becomes more an more important to individuals and enterprises, encryption of data, both stored and transient data, has become prevalent. However, software operations to encrypt and decrypt data are extremely resource intensive. This commonly slows performance of devices performing the encryption operations. Slowed performance is especially visible in instances where data stored on hard disks is encrypted, such as in encrypted volumes. In such instances, as operating systems are loaded, it is not uncommon for at least some portions of operating system instructions to be decrypted prior to execution. However, the operating system needs to be decrypted in the pre-boot environment which is very resource-poor. As a result, the decryption of the operating system extends boot time considerably. With Logical-Block-Addressing (“LBA”) based encryption utilized in full-volume encryption, coupled with ever-larger disks, such as two terabyte disks today and ten terabyte disks expected by 2010, LBA based encryption and other encryption technologies create usability concerns from long install operations, long machine reboots, and the like.
Further, as network bandwidth availability increases, more and more data in larger and larger files is being sent over networks. At the same time, encryption of data transmitted over networks is often necessary. As a result, data transmission latency is increasing due to software encryption and decryption operations performed on the data.